(Singer-songwriter, b. 1981) The daughter of a French poet mother, this singer was born Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong on Christmas Day. She waited on the sidelines while her musician brother, Rollo Armstrong (of the band Faithless), achieved pop success in the mid-1990s. But encouraged after providing vocals for some of his tracks, her own songwriting came to the fore. When 1998’s serene ‘Thank You’ was sampled in part by ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1982–present) Ben Watt (guitar) and Tracey Thorn (vocals, bass) travelled a fascinating road, from the jazz-inflected indie of their self-titled debut in 1984 to the trip hop and drum’n’bass of Walking Wounded in 1996. This crossover was catalyzed by Thorn’s guest appearance on Massive Attack’s Protection in 1994, and DJ Todd Terry’s remix of ‘Missing’, from the mainly acoustic Amplified Heart (1994), which hit No. 2 in the US. ...
(Producer, b. 1963) Norman Cook, former bassist with The Housemartins, has since operated under a number of guises with huge success. As Fatboy Slim he managed to combine the engine room of dance with great rock sounds – including The Who – to create some of the greatest anthems of the 1990s. You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby (1998) remains the best shop window to his addictive sound. Subsequent Fatboy albums ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1994–present) Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson were already successful producers and musicians – Vig producing Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991) – before they recruited Scottish singer Shirley Manson to form Garbage. Pristine intelligent rock of eponymous solo album (1995) spawned monster international single ‘Stupid Girl’. Follow up Version 2.0 (1998) was more electronic but an equally compelling set. Beautiful Garbage (2001) and subsequent Bleed Like Me (2005) shows that, ...
(Animated vocal group, 1998–present) Gorillaz, a virtual band created as an antidote to the bland pop its creators (Blur’s Damon Albarn and cartoonist Jamie Hewlett) saw dominating the charts, have, through stunning choice of guest vocalists and Albarn’s gift for melody, made some of the most memorable pop music of recent years. Their self-titled debut (2001) was comparatively low-key in comparison to its follow-up, but nevertheless held the breezy UK Top ...
(Dance/vocal group, 1987–present) Founders and exponents of a downtempo groove of trip hop, 3D (Robert Del Naja), Daddy G (Grant Marshall) and Mushroom (Andrew Vowles) began working together in Bristol in the late 1980s in a loose collective under the name of The Wild Bunch. Named after a line in a comic book, their debut album Blue Lines (1991) introduced this new sound, and with vocal contributions from Shara Nelson and ...
(Instrumentals, producer, vocals, b. 1965) New Yorker Richard Melville Hall started his career in punk Vatican Commandos before becoming fascinated by the sound and possibilities of dance music when it emerged during the 1980s. Ambient and techno works won him club reputation with tracks like ‘Go’ and ‘I Feel It’ seeping into the lower branches of UK charts. His abilities continued to develop throughout the 1990s reflected in chart success of ...
(Electronica group, 1995–present) Like fellow Bristolians Massive Attack, Portishead were pioneers of the trip hop sound. Although the band – Geoff Barrow (keyboards), Beth Gibbons (vocals), Adrian Utley (guitar) and Dave MacDonald (drums) – kept a low media profile, their debut album Dummy (1996) with its laid-back, almost trance-like beats over which Gibbons sang was voted record of the year by a diverse number of music magazines. Portishead (1997) was more ...
(Electronic group, 1989–present) Initially working under the name The Dust Brothers, Tom Rowlands and Edward Simons began their career as DJs and remixers. After threats of litigation from US Dust Brothers they began recording under the name The Chemical Brothers. Their eclectic, analogue beat-driven dance tracks won a huge following. Live work and collaborations with John Lydon, Noel Gallagher and Beth Orton also displayed their versatility. Albums Dig Your Own Hole ...
(Electronic group, 1989–present) The main fountainhead of creativity was the highly collaborative Dr. Alex Patterson. The Orb redefined ambient music taking listeners on journeys irrespective of genre-fusing elements of dub and even progressive music into long extended pieces. Singles ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld’ (sampling Minnie Riperton’s ‘Loving You’) and ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ are essential. The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Underworld (1991) ...
‘Your Woman’, 1997 White Town (really one-man-show Jyoti Mishra) found hit success in the US and UK with ‘Your Woman’, a song that partially recounted his youthful obsession with a lesbian. Despite EMI signing him to their Chrysalis subsidiary, no amount of backing could conjure interest in his subsequent releases, and so White Town quickly went to recording for indie labels, with a new album allegedly scheduled for 2006. Personalities | New ...
(Dance group, 1998–present) The group that initially started life as a remixing duo (Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns) has since flourished into a downtempo collective of sorts, with guest vocalists adding their talents to the group’s three albums and bringing the pair a huge fan base among ‘coffee table’ listeners. Their music is all at once ambient, soulful, and commercial, best evidenced by collaborations and remixes with and for artists including ...
Jungle and UK garage are often cited as the only real British contributions to electronic music, but the slow motion beats of trip hop are also steeped in the multi-cultural sounds of UK music. Influenced by 1980s dub acts like On-U-Sound, Adrian Sherwood and African Headcharge and their own sound system backgrounds, Bristol based acts like Smith & Mighty and Massive Attack, as well as London outfits Pressure Drop and Renegade ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.